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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
February 4, 1999     Shelton Mason County Journal
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February 4, 1999
 
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90urnal o 0 inion: 'f--- P,,, I00eader$ " 00]ournal: Drive your bus • • cou,a Don't waste tlme Not a hurtful argument with name-calling and sulking and people afraid of wading in but a give-and-take leading to some agreement on what's bes for the children. Shelton has always been a great place to grow up and go to school. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but not many who live here would prefer a big-city envi- ronment. However, like most other places, it could use some improvement in education. We've all read the test statistics. They're not pretty. On the standardized tests, local students used to score just above the national average. The scores have slipped to below average. On the state's new tests measuring competency, local students are as woefully lacking as most of those in the rest of the state. Improvements are mandated. Children will have to pass competency tests, or else, within a few years. They won't get a high-school diploma otherwise. It's up to in- dividual communities to decide how to bring learning up to standards. And citizens should be active partici- pants in the discussions. The decisions are not out of their hands. At the 25-year reunion of our Shelton High School class, we had a talk with a classmate who is now a teacher in Seattle. The state of education is fascinating to us, and we are always interested in talking to administrators, teachers, parents and students. We opened with the observation that the kids seem to be the guinea pigs in experiments testing the latest educational theory and if they're lucky they'll only have to suffer through two or three different educational models between kindergar- ten and the 12th grade. We added that it appeared educators were determining the direction of education by telling parents what was best even when some theories seemed stupid. "Well," she said, "the teachers don't feel like they're controlling the direction of education, so maybe no- body's driving the bus." Nobody's driving the bus? Parents shouldn't, they mustn't, feel that helpless at the local level. Especially now, when the Shelton School District has a Council for the Improvement of Student Learning just waiting for opinions. The group is formu- lating recommendations for the school board on all sorts of policies, including what curriculum changes need to be made to improve students' competency. The civil discussion should go back and forth on some of these educational theories, like the one calling for teachers not to correct students' spelling in their essays so the kids won't feel stifled. "When, pray tell, are we allowed to stifle them long enough to teach them spelling, a crucial part of precise commu- nication? After we've taught them that spelling doesn't matter? No, "spell checks" on computers are not going to save them, any more than a calculator is always available to a child who never learned h times tables:A few years', ago, we had to stand by the computer of an intern each time she spell-checked a story, because when the com- puter gave her six possibilities for the word that was spelled wrong, she didn't know which of the six it was. The discussion should include disenchanted teachers and cit- izens who have things to say but voice minority opinions. We've had discussions with teachers who believe mistakes are being made but who are afraid to speak up. When a high-school teacher says huge numbers of entering freshmen aren't reading at their grade level but doesn't want to talk about it for a story, the fear is that the educator will be in Dutch with the adminis- tration or that the comment will be perceived as an insult to primary and mid-school teachers. It shouldn't be an insult if those teachers are doing their best, following a prescribed cur- riculum and passing students according to the accepted self-es- teem theory of education. You could hardly argue that the low- er grades are filled with bad teachers; more than likely Shel- ton's standards aren't high enough. The community hasn't de- manded any more through its school board or from its children. One of the very things the curriculum council has been discussing is whether children should be flunked - ahem, retained in 1999 vernacular - when they don't meet standards. How far can we go in passing along an ill-prepared student to the next teacher without having it affect the education of the rest of the children? A tough question. Lately we've let the majority suffer for the minority with something called "social promotion." We'd like to think it's possible to show children how much we care about them in a remedial situation in- stead of setting them up for failure in the next grade when they haven't mastered this one yet. The self-esteem movement seems to have gotten a little out of hand. It starts with everyone on the peewee team getting a trophy when the team finishes in seventh place and ends with 40 percent of kids in school on the honor roll. How can 40 per- cent of the children in a grade make the honor roll when only 7 percent of them meet the state's competency standards in all four areas tested? One would think that at least the honor stu- dents would have mastered the material. There's no reason why our students should come back from their first year of college wishing they'd been taught more in high school. There's no reason Shelton High School students should have their grade-point average highly devalued by the University of Washing- ton for entrance purposes because of grade inflation here, The community has the ability to improve the edu- cation of the college-bound, the "average" students and the troubled kids, but it must collectively express its will at its schools, at board meetings, at curriculum planning sessions and at the polls. In the long run, higher standards better prepare students for life That's what some critics of Shelton's standards have been saying, but a lot of people who are comfortable with the status uo would like those people to go away. The critics are "elitist." [n our discussions with those questioning the system, we've found they care about Shelton and care about the kids here. They care about the messages we send to our children. Few civically involved people have any spare time Lhese days, but let's take time for this discussion. It will pay off. - CG age 4- Shelton'-'lason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999 , 0 Editor, The Journal: to offer us in unspoiled vistas, n0 p00ucl00Te00 Get Saddam on his throne By DAVE BARRY Since nobody else has been able to, I came up with a plan for dealing with Saddam Hussein. As you know if you pay atten- tion to foreign affairs, Saddam Hussein is the head honcho of Iraq, which may or may not be the same country as Iran. We hate Saddam because he's always going on TV and smirking and saying things about us. We're not sure what he says, because he de- liberately speaks in a foreign lan- guage, but a classified Central In- telligence Agency analysis recent- ly leaked to The New York Times said, "We think one of the words is 'wiener heads.'" Every few months we, as a na- tion, just get FED UP with Sad- dam, and we fire a batch of hightech, extremely accurate mis- siles - supplied by concerned tax- payers for roughly $i million per missile - at strategic buildings in Iraq. Then our leaders display aerial 'p0tdiphs shoin that wetlaVb destrbyed tlese ' build- ings, vanquished them, really kicked their butts. This makes everybody feel better for 25 minutes, then we see Saddam on the tube AGAIN, wearing his'stu- pid beret, rubbing us the wrong way, until finally we just can't STAND it any more and we whack some MORE Iraqi build- ings. Perhaps you're wondering: "Why are we shooting buildings? Why don't we aim these extreme- ly accurate missiles at Saddam? Or, better yet, why not take care of the problem by giving the mil- lion dollars, in unmarked bills, to an extremely accurate person OTHER people who happen to be in the foreign leader's country, es- pecially if they are inside the buildings we shoot. But legally we may not kill the actual foreign leader personally. This may not make a ton of sense, but it's feder- al law, and we must obey it, just as we must obey other federal laws that we do not understand. (Speaking of which, Kenneth Starr has obtained evidence strongly indicating that Bill Clin- ton and Monica Lewinsky DID, on December 3, 1997, at approx- imately 4:42 p.m., remove the tag from a mattress; you will hear much more on this in the months and years to come.) So this is the problem: We can't shoot Saddam, and it doesn't seem to bother him when we shoot his buildings. Is there a so- lution? Yes. It is a solution that requires us to unleash a force that, frankly, most of us would rather not evem think about,.-per- haps the most feared, the most deadly, the mostevil force that the human race was ever foolish enough to create. That's right: plumbing. I conceived of this plan after receiving a fascinating document from alert mechanical engineer Keith Ritter. The document was written by Julius Ballanco, presi- dent of JB Engineering and Code Consulting; it was published in the October 1998 issue of PM En- gineering, and it is entitled "Violently Fracturing Water Closets," which I assume I do not need to tell you would be an ex- cellent name for a rock band. "Violently Fracturing Water china." Needless to say, this incident raised a question in Mr. Ballan- co's mind, namely: Wouldn't "The Flying Shards" also be an excel- lent name for a rock band? No, seriously, the question it raised was: What caused the wa- ter closet to fracture violently? This question led to a series of ex- periments at (I am not making any of this up) the Stevens Insti- tute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, in which different amounts of pressurized air were introduced into a plumbing sys- tem. The result was several pages of extremely scientific-looking charts and graphs, plus a really cool time-sequence photograph of a toilet exploding. Here is the question: We can- not legally kill a foreign leader, but does it state, anywhere in our body of federal law, that we can- not cause a foreign leader's com- "'*i !'_,"l'ktt II, I, Iltr %,*11 ' ,i J 1 moae o tracmre womny wmm he is using it? To answer that question, I Called the United States Supreme Court, but it was Sunday during the NFL playoffs and nobody answered. I view that as a ruling in my favor. If the Su- preme Court had wanted to, it could easily have had a recording saying something like, "We are not in session today, but it is ille- gal to blow up Saddam Hussein's toilet." So I say we get our top military and plumbing scientists together at the Stevens Institute of Tech- nology and develop a high-tech computerized "smart" air-pres- sure delivery system targeting Saddam - or, as he will come to After reading Mr. Hupp's letter complaining of Dawes and Diehl and the supposed "privileged tri- angle" they have with the Growth Management Hearings Board, I found myself first irritated and then chuckling. First, may I say that Mr. Dawes and Mr. Diehl are not alone in their fight against Mason County's noncompliance with the Growth Management Act. These gentlemen have a strong following. We may not be as vocal or as diligent as Mr. Diehl and Mr. Dawes, but we nonetheless support them in their efforts to force Mason County into compliance with the law. We are those who value Mason County for its rural character and appreciate what this county has traffic snarls and clean mr. Hupp laments the "hundreds thousands of man-hours" during the past eight years consultants, etc. This is mention the taxpayers' money well. Please, Mason County, wasting this valuable time money and work to implem the laws of the state of ton rather than circumvent By doing this, we can assure Mason County remains a top tourist attraction and a tion for the wretched the cities who want nothing than to escape their masses. I say hooray for and Dawes! Penelope K. Caml Shel Do fence me in Editor, The Journal: I am writing this letter to ask the people to have the fence at Kneeland Park put back up. There are many, many children that play there and have picnics with their families, etc., but it only takes a second for a small child to slip away, and First Street is a busy street, too busy for that small child to run into af- ter a rubber ball, etc. I tried to explain this to the man at the Shelton Parks creation Department, but he it's the parents' responsibility to keep watch over their that "the city doesn't want park to have a fence there cause they don't want the looking like a prison." What about the children? their safety first? I say so! Susan Goldsb Add eighth Editor, The Journal: I am very disappointed to see that the Southside board is not listening to a professional survey that they themselves requested. I still feel that we could have a wonderful school with an eighth grade. I have had personal experi- ence with the middle school and didn't find that it was as good ed- ucationally as Southside. This is n'0t a matter of "letting our kids spread their wings" and "expe- rience the havoc of the real world." They will have plenty of time for that. I think the extra year at Southside would allow them to develop and become stronger as individuals and better able to stand up to peer pressure. If we have an eighth grade we will not be holding back our stu- dents. Several people expressed that our students would not have access to a sports program. This is not what school should be about. It should be what is the best education that can be provid- ed to our students. I think that would be best done in the envi- ronment that Southside can pro- a home ec room as well as a ence lab, and the building wired for technology. By the our computer program is advanced than the Shelton die School. It is my feeling we do not deliver on a pro that was made, the voters less likely to listen to your for additional levies in the The funds are there The cost of our non-high and the state funding is to support the staff necessary: Could the strong feeling of: position from the teachers be cause they have had only tary students so far and know how to relate to the students; are they afraid of change? The older kids are "raging hormone monsters" they are made out to be. I said that the seventh-grad have nothing to do but around. Even at another sob0 there isn't lunchtime entertS ment. At that age that is all t! want to do, talk and walk aro I wish the board members posing the eighth grade felt d with a name like Vincent 'Vinny Closets" begins with a chilling be scornfully called behind his vide. If a child wants sports, there ferently. Unfortunately, it see lito The Polyp' Sarcoma?" story: An individual - described back, "Shard Butt." THAT would are wonderful sport programs my other child will have to e f. The answer is that, under fed- in the Ballanco article only as "an wipe the smirk off his face and available at the Mason County perience what you think is a .0 eral law, we are not allowed to individual" - flushes a toilet in a cause him to come running to the RecreationalArea. derful and necessary par " h  kill a foreign leader, even if he is high-rise building and is "injured bargaining table! We'd definitelv When the levy was asked for to growing up. By the way, her opt| 11 l really ticking us off. We can kill by flying shards of vitreous want him to clean up first. - build onto our school, they used ion is that Southside should '| tli the bait of adding an eighth an eighthgrade. .,| ",eri grade. That is why the project LindaB;| y Not another gravel mine Letter astoundin00!l room was designed to be used as Shel ;,?t li, Editor, The Journal: Monday through Saturday. There they,,think we, will stand by and h We are writing in he es of will be great clouds of dust and sa , Oh, well  We will fi ht thi Irls P . . . Y • g s b'ael reaching all that live and work pollutants m the mr, explosmns until the bitter end. If there is Editor, The Journal: is a wonderful thing to l" ay along Johns Prairie Road and that will scare our children and anyone else out there also con- We were astounded by Mr. country that guarantees surrounding neighborhoods. For those of us who cherish our quiet rural life, this may be a thing of the past, for a company is moving in by the name of McEwen Prair- ie Surface mine. They plan to build a sand and gravel mine with a rock screening and crush- ing plant. What this means to us as own- ers and residents will be a night- mare, Our quiet community will be no more with up to 50 trucks coming and going six days a week starting from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. What do you call the date on which you learn you have to eat pork sau- mage for six more weeks? Ground-hog Day. iii animals. That is just a tip of the iceberg. We have to consider the impact to our wildlife and the existing pond there that is full of fish. Our wa- ter table will be threatened. The traffic on Johns Prairie Road is bad now; think of what it will be in the future. Why did this company wait two years to notify only the land own- er adjacent to this property? Do cerned, please write to: Mason County Department of Communi- ty Development, Attention: Pam Bennett-Cummings, PO.Box 578. Shelton, 98584. They have only given us till February 17 to reply. Please don't let this become another Manke pit! Richard and Debra Snyder Shelton Local milestone Editor, The Journal: Your readers undoubtedly no- ticed that last week The Shelton- Mason County Journal passed a milestone in its long history by publishing the editorial on the fi- nancing of our schools. It matters not whether they agreed or dis- agreed with your stand on the matter - the significance lies in the fact you took a stand at all. For as many decades as memo- ry serves, The Journal has studiously avoided any editorial concern or comment on crucial de- cisions facing Mason County real- dents. Obviously many of the readers enjoyed the humorous di- atribes reflecting the nation's woes, but missed the benefit of any editorial opinion, or even ref- erence, to our own local problems. One could now hope the Jour- nal of Opinion column would con- tinue to profit by illuminating and discussing the issues faced at home. The national controversies could better be left to our TV sta- tions and to the Seattle dailies. R.S. Holt Union Brighton's letter to the editor on January 21, and we appreciated Mr. Gay's editorial response. It is difficult to imagine the ex- periences that could have caused the writing of such a letter, but it of speech. It would be even wonderful if we all selves in a civil manner. Kathleen ' 'O€' ' USPS 492-800 .o00our00al | POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Joumal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. ..,j | Published weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shalton, WaS Iln1 I | Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 428.4412 Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $25.00 per year in-county address, $35 00 per year m state of Washin ton ut of • ' g $45.00 per year o , -- Gay, editor and publisher. Nmnroom: Carolyn Maddux, managing editor;  Charles Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city govemment, schools; Mary urD,. society editor, county govemmant; Sean Hanlon, police, courts, Port of Shalton. AdVe Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Piedk, ad sales. Front ' Julie Orme, business manager; VIckl Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, bookkeeper;i Mahony, office assistant. Compoelng room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot B r Jan Kalllnen, paste-up; Kolean Wood, typesetter and computer system manager; Kan r,, computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Meyer, proofreader, preSft. Robert Rodriguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly Riordan, pre.=d  90urnal o 0 inion: 'f--- P,,, I00eader$ " 00]ournal: Drive your bits • cou,00 0000,co,,,oo,00oote00 . Don't waste tlme Not a hurtful argument with name-calling and sulking and people afraid of wading in but a give-and-take leading to some agreement on what's bes for the children. Shelton has always been a great place to grow up and go to school. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but not many who live here would prefer a big-city envi- ronment. However, like most other places, it could use some improvement in education. We've all read the test statistics. They're not pretty. On the standardized tests, local students used to score just above the national average. The scores have slipped to below average. On the state's new tests measuring competency, local students are as woefully lacking as most of those in the rest of the state. Improvements are mandated. Children will have to pass competency tests, or else, within a few years. They won't get a high-school diploma otherwise. It's up to in- dividual communities to decide how to bring learning up to standards. And citizens should be active partici- pants in the discussions. The decisions are not out of their hands. At the 25-year reunion of our Shelton High School class, we had a talk with a classmate who is now a teacher in Seattle. The state of education is fascinating to us, and we are always interested in talking to administrators, teachers, parents and students. We opened with the observation that the kids seem to be the guinea pigs in experiments testing the latest educational theory and if they're lucky they'll only have to suffer through two or three different educational models between kindergar- ten and the 12th grade. We added that it appeared educators were determining the direction of education by telling parents what was best even when some theories seemed stupid. "Well," she said, "the teachers don't feel like they're controlling the direction of education, so maybe no- body's driving the bus." Nobody's driving the bus? Parents shouldn't, they mustn't, feel that helpless at the local level. Especially now, when the Shelton School District has a Council for the Improvement of Student Learning just waiting for opinions. The group is formu- lating recommendations for the school board on all sorts of policies, including what curriculum changes need to be made to improve students' competency. The civil discussion should go back and forth on some of these educational theories, like the one calling for teachers not to correct students' spelling in their essays so the kids won't feel stifled. "When, pray tell, are we allowed to stifle them long enough to teach them spelling, a crucial part of precise commu- nication? After we've taught them that spelling doesn't matter? No, "spell checks" on computers are not going to save them, any more than a calculator is always available to a child who never learned h times tables:A few years', ago, we had to stand by the computer of an intern each time she spell-checked a story, because when the com- puter gave her six possibilities for the word that was spelled wrong, she didn't know which of the six it was. The discussion should include disenchanted teachers and cit- izens who have things to say but voice minority opinions. We've had discussions with teachers who believe mistakes are being made but who are afraid to speak up. When a high-school teacher says huge numbers of entering freshmen aren't reading at their grade level but doesn't want to talk about it for a story, the fear is that the educator will be in Dutch with the adminis- tration or that the comment will be perceived as an insult to primary and mid-school teachers. It shouldn't be an insult if those teachers are doing their best, following a prescribed cur- riculum and passing students according to the accepted self-es- teem theory of education. You could hardly argue that the low- er grades are filled with bad teachers; more than likely Shel- ton's standards aren't high enough. The community hasn't de- manded any more through its school board or from its children. One of the very things the curriculum council has been discussing is whether children should be flunked - ahem, retained in 1999 vernacular - when they don't meet standards. How far can we go in passing along an ill-prepared student to the next teacher without having it affect the education of the rest of the children? A tough question. Lately we've let the majority suffer for the minority with something called "social promotion." We'd like to think it's possible to show children how much we care about them in a remedial situation in- stead of setting them up for failure in the next grade when they haven't mastered this one yet. The self-esteem movement seems to have gotten a little out of hand. It starts with everyone on the peewee team getting a trophy when the team finishes in seventh place and ends with 40 percent of kids in school on the honor roll. How can 40 per- cent of the children in a grade make the honor roll when only 7 percent of them meet the state's competency standards in all four areas tested? One would think that at least the honor stu- dents would have mastered the material. There's no reason why our students should come back from their first year of college wishing they'd been taught more in high school. There's no reason Shelton High School students should have their grade-point average highly devalued by the University of Washing- ton for entrance purposes because of grade inflation here, The community has the ability to improve the edu- cation of the college-bound, the "average" students and the troubled kids, but it must collectively express its will at its schools, at board meetings, at curriculum planning sessions and at the polls. In the long run, higher standards better prepare students for life That's what some critics of Shelton's standards have been saying, but a lot of people who are comfortable with the status uo would like those people to go away. The critics are "elitist." [n our discussions with those questioning the system, we've found they care about Shelton and care about the kids here. They care about the messages we send to our children. Few civically involved people have any spare time Lhese days, but let's take time for this discussion. It will pay off. - CG age 4- Shelton'-'lason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999 '  Editor, The Journal: to offer us in unspoiled vistas, n0 p00ucl00Te00 Get Saddam on his throne By DAVE BARRY Since nobody else has been able to, I came up with a plan for dealing with Saddam Hussein. As you know if you pay atten- tion to foreign affairs, Saddam Hussein is the head honcho of Iraq, which may or may not be the same country as Iran. We hate Saddam because he's always going on TV and smirking and saying things about us. We're not sure what he says, because he de- liberately speaks in a foreign lan- guage, but a classified Central In- telligence Agency analysis recent- ly leaked to The New York Times said, "We think one of the words is 'wiener heads.'" Every few months we, as a na- tion, just get FED UP with Sad- dam, and we fire a batch of hightech, extremely accurate mis- siles - supplied by concerned tax- payers for roughly $i million per missile - at strategic buildings in Iraq. Then our leaders display aerial 'p0tdiphs shoin that wetlaVb destrbyed tlese ' build- ings, vanquished them, really kicked their butts. This makes everybody feel better for 25 minutes, then we see Saddam on the tube AGAIN, wearing his'stu- pid beret, rubbing us the wrong way, until finally we just can't STAND it any more and we whack some MORE Iraqi build- ings. Perhaps you're wondering: "Why are we shooting buildings? Why don't we aim these extreme- ly accurate missiles at Saddam? Or, better yet, why not take care of the problem by giving the mil- lion dollars, in unmarked bills, to an extremely accurate person OTHER people who happen to be in the foreign leader's country, es- pecially if they are inside the buildings we shoot. But legally we may not kill the actual foreign leader personally. This may not make a ton of sense, but it's feder- al law, and we must obey it, just as we must obey other federal laws that we do not understand. (Speaking of which, Kenneth Starr has obtained evidence strongly indicating that Bill Clin- ton and Monica Lewinsky DID, on December 3, 1997, at approx- imately 4:42 p.m., remove the tag from a mattress; you will hear much more on this in the months and years to come.) So this is the problem: We can't shoot Saddam, and it doesn't seem to bother him when we shoot his buildings. Is there a so- lution? Yes. It is a solution that requires us to unleash a force that, frankly, most of us would rather not evem think about .- per- haps the most feared, the most deadly, the mostevil force that the human race was ever foolish enough to create. That's right: plumbing. I conceived of this plan after receiving a fascinating document from alert mechanical engineer Keith Ritter. The document was written by Julius Ballanco, presi- dent of JB Engineering and Code Consulting; it was published in the October 1998 issue of PM En- gineering, and it is entitled "Violently Fracturing Water Closets," which I assume I do not need to tell you would be an ex- cellent name for a rock band. "Violently Fracturing Water china." Needless to say, this incident raised a question in Mr. Ballan- co's mind, namely: Wouldn't "The Flying Shards" also be an excel- lent name for a rock band? No, seriously, the question it raised was: What caused the wa- ter closet to fracture violently? This question led to a series of ex- periments at (I am not making any of this up) the Stevens Insti- tute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, in which different amounts of pressurized air were introduced into a plumbing sys- tem. The result was several pages of extremely scientific-looking charts and graphs, plus a really cool time-sequence photograph of a toilet exploding. Here is the question: We can- not legally kill a foreign leader, but does it state, anywhere in our body of federal law, that we can- not cause a foreign leader's com- "'*i !'_,"l'ktt II, I, Iltr %,*11 ' ,i J 1 moae o racmre womny wmm he is using it? To answer that question, I Called the United States Supreme Court, but it was Sunday during the NFL playoffs and nobody answered. I view that as a ruling in my favor. If the Su- preme Court had wanted to, it could easily have had a recording saying something like, "We are not in session today, but it is ille- gal to blow up Saddam Hussein's toilet." So I say we get our top military and plumbing scientists together at the Stevens Institute of Tech- nology and develop a high-tech computerized "smart" air-pres- sure delivery system targeting Saddam - or, as he will come to After reading Mr. Hupp's letter complaining of Dawes and Diehl and the supposed "privileged tri- angle" they have with the Growth Management Hearings Board, I found myself first irritated and then chuckling. First, may I say that Mr. Dawes and Mr. Diehl are not alone in their fight against Mason County's noncompliance with the Growth Management Act. These gentlemen have a strong following. We may not be as vocal or as diligent as Mr. Diehl and Mr. Dawes, but we nonetheless support them in their efforts to force Mason County into compliance with the law. We are those who value Mason County for its rural character and appreciate what this county has traffic snarls and clean mr. Hupp laments the "hundreds thousands of man-hours" during the past eight years consultants, etc. This is mention the taxpayers' money well. Please, Mason County, wasting this valuable time money and work to implem the laws of the state of ton rather than circumvent By doing this, we can assure Mason County remains a top tourist attraction and a tion for the wretched the cities who want nothing than to escape their masses. I say hooray for and Dawes! Penelope K. Caml Shel Do fence me in Editor, The Journal: I am writing this letter to ask the people to have the fence at Kneeland Park put back up. There are many, many children that play there and have picnics with their families, etc., but it only takes a second for a small child to slip away, and First Street is a busy street, too busy for that small child to run into af- ter a rubber ball, etc. I tried to explain this to the man at the Shelton Parks creation Department, but he it's the parents' responsibility to keep watch over their that "the city doesn't want park to have a fence there cause they don't want the looking like a prison." What about the children? their safety first? I say so! Susan Goldsb Add eighth Editor, The Journal: I am very disappointed to see that the Southside board is not listening to a professional survey that they themselves requested. I still feel that we could have a wonderful school with an eighth grade. I have had personal experi- ence with the middle school and didn't find that it was as good ed- ucationally as Southside. This is n'0t a matter of "letting our kids spread their wings" and "expe- rience the havoc of the real world." They will have plenty of time for that. I think the extra year at Southside would allow them to develop and become stronger as individuals and better able to stand up to peer pressure. If we have an eighth grade we will not be holding back our stu- dents. Several people expressed that our students would not have access to a sports program. This is not what school should be about. It should be what is the best education that can be provid- ed to our students. I think that would be best done in the envi- ronment that Southside can pro- a home ec room as well as a ence lab, and the building wired for technology. By the our computer program is advanced than the Shelton die School. It is my feeling we do not deliver on a pro that was made, the voters less likely to listen to your for additional levies in the The funds are there The cost of our non-high and the state funding is to support the staff necessary: Could the strong feeling of: position from the teachers be cause they have had only tary students so far and know how to relate to the students; are they afraid of change? The older kids are "raging hormone monsters" they are made out to be. I said that the seventh-grad have nothing to do but around. Even at another sob0 there isn't lunchtime entertS ment. At that age that is all t! want to do, talk and walk aro I wish the board members posing the eighth grade felt d with a name like Vincent 'Vinny Closets" begins with a chilling be scornfully called behind his vide. If a child wants sports, there ferently. Unfortunately, it see lito The Polyp' Sarcoma?" story: An individual - described back, "Shard Butt." THAT would are wonderful sport programs my other child will have to e f. The answer is that, under fed- in the Ballanco article only as "an wipe the smirk off his face and available at the Mason County perience what you think is a .0 eral law, we are not allowed to individual" - flushes a toilet in a cause him to come running to the RecreationalArea. derful and necessary par " h  kill a foreign leader, even if he is high-rise building and is "injured bargaining table! We'd definitelv When the levy was asked for to growing up. By the way, her opt| 11 l really ticking us off. We can kill by flying shards of vitreous want him to clean up first.  build onto our school, they used ion is that Southside should '| tli the bait of adding an eighth an eighthgrade. .,| ",eri grade. That is why the project LindaB;| y Not another gravel mine Letter astoundin00!l. room was designed to be used as Shel ;,?t li, Editor, The Journal: Monday through Saturday. There they,,think we, will stand by and h We are writing in he es of will be great clouds of dust and sa , Oh, well  We will fi ht thi Irls P . . . Y • g s b'ael reaching all that live and work pollutants m the mr, explosmns until the bitter end. If there is Editor, The Journal: is a wonderful thing to l" ay along Johns Prairie Road and that will scare our children and anyone else out there also con- We were astounded by Mr. country that guarantees surrounding neighborhoods. For those of us who cherish our quiet rural life, this may be a thing of the past, for a company is moving in by the name of McEwen Prair- ie Surface mine. They plan to build a sand and gravel mine with a rock screening and crush- ing plant. What this means to us as own- ers and residents will be a night- mare, Our quiet community will be no more with up to 50 trucks coming and going six days a week starting from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. What do you call the date on which you learn you have to eat pork sau- mage for six more weeks? Ground-hog Day. HI animals. That is just a tip of the iceberg. We have to consider the impact to our wildlife and the existing pond there that is full of fish. Our wa- ter table will be threatened. The traffic on Johns Prairie Road is bad now; think of what it will be in the future. Why did this company wait two years to notify only the land own- er adjacent to this property? Do cerned, please write to: Mason County Department of Communi- ty Development, Attention: Pam Bennett-Cummings, PO.Box 578. Shelton, 98584. They have only given us till February 17 to reply. Please don't let this become another Manke pit! Richard and Debra Snyder Shelton Local milestone Editor, The Journal: Your readers undoubtedly no- ticed that last week The Shelton- Mason County Journal passed a milestone in its long history by publishing the editorial on the fi- nancing of our schools. It matters not whether they agreed or dis- agreed with your stand on the matter - the significance lies in the fact you took a stand at all. For as many decades as memo- ry serves, The Journal has studiously avoided any editorial concern or comment on crucial de- cisions facing Mason County real- dents. Obviously many of the readers enjoyed the humorous di- atribes reflecting the nation's woes, but missed the benefit of any editorial opinion, or even ref- erence, to our own local problems. One could now hope the Jour- nal of Opinion column would con- tinue to profit by illuminating and discussing the issues faced at home. The national controversies could better be left to our TV sta- tions and to the Seattle dailies. R.S. Holt Union Brighton's letter to the editor on January 21, and we appreciated Mr. Gay's editorial response. It is difficult to imagine the ex- periences that could have caused the writing of such a letter, but it of speech. It would be even wonderful if we all selves in a civil manner. Kathleen ' 'O€' ' USPS 492-800 .o00our00al | POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Joumal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. ..,j | Published weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shalton, WaS Iln1 I | Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 428.4412 Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $25.00 per year in-county address, $35 00 per year m state of Washin ton ut of • ' g $45.00 per year o , -- Gay, editor and publisher. Nmnroom: Carolyn Maddux, managing editor;  Charles Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city govemment, schools; Mary urD,. society editor, county govemmant; Sean Hanlon, police, courts, Port of Shalton. AdVe Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Piedk, ad sales. Front ' Julie Orme, business manager; VIckl Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, bookkeeper;i Mahony, office assistant. Compoelng room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot B r Jan Kalllnen, paste-up; Kolean Wood, typesetter and computer system manager; Kan r,, computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Meyer, proofreader, preSft. Robert Rodriguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly Riordan, pre.=d